


Shangri La

by misomme



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, F/M, Parallel Universes, Time Travel, Zutara
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-19 05:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29870058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misomme/pseuds/misomme
Summary: In a desperate attempt to undo the damage of Azula's lightning strike on Aang, Katara flings herself into another dimension. Here, she finds herself five years older, five years in the wake of Sozin's Comet, and five years too late to stop the events she's already seen in another life unfolding in front of her. Zutara AU.
Relationships: Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 38
Kudos: 68





	1. Life with a Thousand Possiblities

**Shangri La: A remote, imaginary place where life approaches perfection.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Life with a Thousand Possibilities**

* * *

_It's not enough_ , Katara thinks dimly, as she catches Aang's body. The lightning twitches through him and Katara breaks open the vial of spirit water and pushes it through the gaping wound. _It's not enough._

She vaguely registers heat heading towards her, and as she covers Aang's body with her own, Iroh is there, shouting for her to get out, and she follows his command dumbly. She hoists Aang's unresponsive body into her arms and rushes to the exit, trying not to jostle his bleeding body. She pays no attention to the pair of golden eyes that follow her retreat.

She has been trained as a fighter first and a healer second, but it doesn't take much to know that it's not enough. The spirit water may have delayed his death, pulled him back from the brink, but his heart is struggling to stabilise, and his organs seem to be caving in.

Mercifully, she bumps into Sokka and Toph, and snaps in irritation at both of them when they seem frozen in horror at the sight of Aang's limp body. They don't have time for this; it's not enough.

Somehow, they clamber on to Appa and race towards the Northern Water Tribe. She can't remember how they got here, or how they decided to head to their sister tribe. Not that it matters; there is no time to mull over decisions, there is only time to heal. She pulls water periodically from the seascape whipping beneath her, cloaking Aang in its healing energy.

She tries not to wonder if the spirit water worked; she tries not to wonder at all. The chasm between her and her offer to heal the pathetic traitor gapes open with a flurry of questions, and she knows that if she succumbs to it, she may never be able to climb out again. Would Aang survive? Was her ineptitude in healing going to result in the murder of the world's last hope? What would happen to Ba Sing Se? To them?

The sting from the wind pulls tears out of her eyes, and she brushes them aside impatiently. There's no time for crying. She focuses on trying to keep Aang's heart beating, and it's not nearly enough. A sob breaks loose from her throat, and she suddenly feels Toph burrow against her side in an uncharacteristic display of vulnerability. As Sokka whips at the reins, Katara and Toph cling on to each other and Aang, indulging themselves in their grief and missing entirely the sight of a war balloon trailing behind them.

* * *

Their arrival at the Northern Water Tribe is predictably marred by confusion. It takes a while of Sokka's panicked explanations for someone to be alerted. Katara lays Aang down in the snow and continues the push and pull of the water from Aang's chest, and someone drops to their knees by his head.

Master Pakku's face is creased with concern. "Who did this?" he murmurs to her, weaving his gloved hands and the ball of water between them around Aang's chest.

Katara remembers little else than a scar under her palm and lightning arcing through the air. "Take a guess."

Finally looking away from Aang's serene face, she faces her waterbending master. She opens her mouth, swallows, and then tries again: "Can you heal him?"

Pakku's mouth tips downwards. "No. We need Yugoda…" he trails off, grimacing.

In another world, in another life, Katara might have found wry amusement in her waterbending master's admittance of inferior healing skills, but she instead levitates Aang using a bed of ice. Pakku joins in, and together, they start heading towards the healing huts.

As Sokka falls into step besides them, Katara turns to Toph. "Coming?" she asks, a little urgently.

Toph shakes her head, her feet sinking further into the snow. She fists her hands in Appa's fur. "I'll take care of Appa."

As they begin their race towards Yugoda, Katara feels Sokka's hand grip hers. Together, they stare at the red that starts to stain the ice beneath Aang's body.

* * *

There is nothing that Yugoda can do. She tells Katara as much, a breath after assuring her that using the spirit water was the right thing to do.

"Will he live?" Katara asks.

Yugoda doesn't know, but Katara can tell that she is not hopeful.

"What, then?" Katara hears herself ask. "Tell me what I need to do. Please."

As a collective, they are lost for words. Katara looks at Aang, so small in the vast pile of furs Yugoda has placed him on. He is cocooned in the healing water Yugoda has specially blessed, and he levitates slightly from the furs. Various herbs dot the walls around them, cramped into jars and sneaking past their lids. Scrolls and informative drawings are packed into various shelves, and Katara squints at the diagram of chakra being shared between two silhouettes. _Chi transfusion_ , it reads.

"Katara, we have to wait and see," Yugoda is saying, frowning at the sight of the small boy in her furs. "We've done what we can, we have to wait."

"No! Tell me what to do!" Katara voice crescendos, but she doesn't care. "Do I have to use more spirit water? Do I have to go to _the_ _spirit_ _world_ and get him back? I'll do it, just tell me!"

From the entryway, she hears a mirthless chuckle. Chief Arnook.

"Must you always shout at all the elders here?" he asks her. He approaches Aang's bed, and splays a hand delicately over the tattoo on his forehead. "Pakku filled me in," he tells her, swallowing. "I'm sorry. You can of course seek refuge here while we wait for Aang to heal."

"I don't want to _wait_ , I want to heal him! Are you telling me that there are no healers in _all of the Northern Water Tribe_ who can help him? That there's nothing in the world we can do?"

Yugoda looks at her, sharply, curiously. She meanders thoughtfully over to the shelf overflowing with scrolls, pushing her thumb and index fingers against her temples. "In this world... no," she mutters to herself.

Katara is apparently not the only one who's lost by the abrupt shift in tone. Chief Arnook clears his throat, confusion contorting his face.

Yugoda runs an index finger along the smooth ridges of scrolls, before unceremoniously yanking one out. She ignores the cascade of scrolls by her feet. She begins unrolling it, the tips of her mouth drawing further and further downwards as she inspects the contents.

Katara is impatient. _"What?"_

Yugoda ignores her, as she thoughtfully thumbs at the bottom of the scroll. Finally, she looks over at Chief Arnook, her expression indecipherable. She places the scroll in his outstretched hand.

She turns to Katara slowly.

"In our tribes, there is a forgotten legend of the Life with A Thousand Possibilities. Tui, the spirit of the moon, would spend her days in the embrace of, La, the spirit of the ocean. At nighttime, she would gaze fondly down on her lover, who would create tides the size of islands to entertain her. She would drift down, gradually, entranced by the dance of the waves. La would open up his arms to her when she drifted close, and the two of them would spend time in each other's embrace until nighttime beckoned her back up again. So went the rise and fall of the moon. One day, as the winds became colder and nighttime became more demanding, La became jealous and impatient at his lover's slow dance back down to him, and her insistence to remain among the Original Stars for such long periods.

'Why must you torment me so?' he demanded.

'I belong with you, but I also belong with the nighttime, illuminating the world when it is darkest,' she replied. 'I cannot abandon the Original Stars to the lonesome of the night. Not even for you.'

In a fit of jealous rage, La pulled Tui into his arms, and refused to let her resurface. Tui's fitful thrashing caused the tides La controlled to turn tumultuous, as the world tipped into darkness.

'Why have you forsaken her?' the Original Stars wailed to him, but he ignored them all. At last, he had achieved the stasis he craved. The tides calmed, and Tui stopped thrashing. As La inspected his lover, he realised with horror that she had drowned.

As La mourned the loss of his lover, his tears filled the ocean and crowded the stars further and further up.

'Stop,' they pleaded, 'you'll drown us all!'

'Return my lover to me,' he demanded them, as the water level steadily rose.

Panicked, they offered him a deal. Each of the Original Stars would agree to be swallowed whole by La, under the premise that they would resurface safely on the other side of the ocean to a different world.

'One of these worlds must have Tui, alive and happy,' they reasoned. 'In this world, you can be with her forever, with the correct push and pull you deserve.'

La agreed eagerly, and opened his mouth. The Original Stars queued up and flung themselves in his mouth, one by one. He swallowed them all whole, and kept his promise. He guided them each to the other side of the ocean, and then weaved through the different worlds to find Tui.

At last, he caught the glimmer of silver and cried in relief. 'Finally,' he said, 'I will never forsake you again.'

And so Tui lived again, rising up to her friends, the stars, and spending the days in the embrace of her lover. One Original Star always remained in each of his worlds, always pointing north, branding his shame forever."

Katara looks steadily at Yugoda. "What does this have to do with..." she gestures weakly to the boy with the gaping wound.

Yugoda glances at Chief Arnook, whose expression remains stoic as he reaches the ends of the scroll.

"Legend has it," she explains quietly, "that those who swallow a star themselves may be transported by Tui and La to another world. One where the mistakes you want to avoid have not happened. One where..." she trails off, but she doesn't need to finish the sentence. One where Aang may not die.

The silence is punctured by a spluttering, disbelieving laugh. " _Swallow_ a _star_? Lady, are you crazy?"

Katara starts at the sound of Sokka's voice. She had forgotten he was here.

Yugoda frowns heavily at him. "Be quiet," she snaps.

Katara eyes the old woman. "Er... not to sound pessimistic, but how would we ever find a star to swallow?" She treads carefully around her words; she doesn't want to upset the one person in the world who may be able to save Aang.

Yugoda plucks a jar from her shelf, and lifts it for them to see. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that you can find stars at the end of the Northern Lights?"

In fact, Gran Gran had. She glances uneasily at Sokka, who looks back at her hopelessly. They both turn to Aang, whose face looks so young, so serene, like he was entranced by a dreamless sleep.

Sokka comes to stand besides her, gently nudging her shoulder with his own.

"You've always believed in mumbo-jumbo spiritual stuff," Sokka tells her, smiling slightly. "Aunt Wu," he reminds her, linking his pinkie finger with hers.

That is neither here nor there, and she tells him as such. Still, she supposes that she _would_ try anything to save Aang.

"Okay, let's try it." Katara turns to Yugoda expectantly, only to find her shaking her head.

"If only it were this simple. It'll take a night to brew the actual potion. But if I get started - "

"No."

Everyone turns to Chief Arnook, whose expression is grave. "No. I will not permit this to happen."

"Chief - " Yugoda starts, but he interrupts her.

"You don't understand the consequences of what you're saying. You're too young. You're endangering us all. This could ruin not only this life, but the life you're proposing to jump into as well. You think you can save Aang in the other world? You can be given a clean slate, but do you know that if Aang dies in another life, he dies here as well?"

Katara turns to Yugoda. "Is this true?"

She nods. "Not only that," she explains gently, "but you'll also be giving up your current life. You may never be able to return, ever. What you find there may be the last chance you have. Are you willing to risk it?"

She doesn't know.

"I can concoct the potion while you decide. Just in case. It requires a night under the moon to get her blessing. May Yue help us. If you decide to go through with this, you must do it before dawn breaks tomorrow."

Katara looks at the softly dimming sky. _Tomorrow,_ she thinks, and then nods at Yugoda. Chief Arnook, scowling, blocks Yugoda's exit. "You cannot do this. You don't know what the consequences are."

Katara frowns heavily at Arnook. "This is the Avatar. We have to save him. If we do nothing, he'll die, right?"

Yugoda hesitates before answering: "We don't know, but..." _Yes._

The time before Arnook's answer morphs into a physical thing; she sees the way he paces at the door, fists clenched around the scroll and brows furrowed. Katara is seized by a sudden nostalgia for her own father. Would he have acted like this? Katara would have like to remember him as braver than this.

He finally whips around to face Katara. "You don't get a _clean slate_. Some of the consequences of your actions in the other life will directly affect this one. We've finally built a stronghold in the Norther Water Tribe! You cannot forsake this life; you could ruin everything we've worked towards!" He shakes the scroll at Katara, who takes it and examines some of its text:

' _Actions that may anger La can be felt in all lives, likely at the cost of the traveller's own life and those around her, in both lives. One wrong step and both lives could suddenly become unrecognisable.'_

She looks at the Chief, and Sokka interjects angrily on her behalf. " _This_ is everything we've worked towards!" He points at Aang. "If we do nothing, he dies. And then what would happen to our world?"

Arnook's face contorts in arrogance. "We would be fine. The Fire Nation wouldn't attack us again. We've learned from our previous mistakes; we're not - "

"What?" Katara snaps. "Ba Sing Se? I saw Zuko and Azula take the city down _by themselves_ _!_ Who do you think is next? Where is the next big stronghold?"

It's true. With Ba Sing Se fallen, it only makes sense to attack the biggest civilisation from the remaining nation. The South Pole has been slaughtered down to just Katara's Gran Gran; they'll come here next.

The Chief stares intently at her, and then after a beat, down at the furs by Aang's feet. "We cannot risk it. Do you think I wanted it this way? Don't you think I understand what it's like to want to go to another world to get someone back?" he tells them quietly.

The moon shines brightly outside their tent as Sokka tells him: "This is what Yue would have done. This is what she would have wanted."

There is pain in the Chief's eyes, but Katara is not swayed. She knows what it's like to have family murdered, and she knows that there are things more important than fear, such as saving the life of the world's last hope. Aang has shouldered the burden of a hundred Avatars since he emerged from the iceberg. She hopes to see him penguin sled again.

Finally, Chief Arnook caves, and takes his leave. "Don't say I didn't warn you," he says, bitterly. Yugoda follows after him, nervously clutching a jar and a couple of vials of liquids.

Sokka turns to her. "I'm going to carry Toph over. We should be together."

Katara readily agrees, and then it's just her and Aang in the tent. She touches the soft furs surrounding him, and caves finally to the dam of questions she has blocked up until this point.

In the dim green of the Crystal Catacombs, she had believed that she could transform the world into the one she wanted with enough hope in people. _I thought you had changed_ , she told him.

She realises, now, that there is no such thing as perfection. She thinks about the life she would give up: the war, her mother's death, her father's sturdy silences and her brother's deep-bellied laughter. She may never meet Toph in her new life. She may never train under Pakku, she may never insurrect a rebellion on a ship, she may never have to see Jet die, she may never penguin sled with the world's last hope. She may never be betrayed again.

She lays on the furs besides Aang, and as she waits for Toph and Sokka, she drifts into a fitful dream of lightning streaking through the air, golden eyes, and stars being swallowed whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA.
> 
> A/N: Hi all - how's your pandemic going?
> 
> Anyway, you might notice that the first few chapters are very Katara-centric (rest assured, this is a Zutara fiction). I'd like to flesh out a world first and get her to the future before I start developing her relationships. We'll see how it goes!
> 
> Please leave a review - any feedback is welcome, even the criticism (though I do hope it's constructive...)!


	2. Leap of Faith

**Chapter 2: Leap of Faith**

* * *

They camp at the foot of Aang's makeshift bed, covered in their own furs they found in a dusty corner of the Healing Hut. Toph remains uncharacteristically quiet after they had filled her in, a facet of both her inability to see and her worry about Aang. Twice, Katara has caught her groping the air surreptitiously in an attempt to touch Aang. The second time, Katara had gently guided her fingers to Aang's forehead.

"What's going to happen to him?" Toph had asked, gently cupping his bald head.

Katara finally gave voice to her own guilt: "I don't know. I think I couldn't save him with the spirit water."

Toph bent her head down, seeking Katara's hand with her own free one. They linked fingers.

Now, they lie side-by-side, the two Water Tribe siblings sandwiching Toph between them. She had grumbled and complained, but Katara knows she's quite pleased to be surrounded by them. Her family.

In the quiet of the night, they discuss the possibilities that gape open before them; namely, what Katara would do once she reached the other world, and what the two of them would do in this one.

 _"If_ you decide to go to the other world," Sokka reminds her.

"If," Katara agrees, but she knows her answer.

Sokka, ever the tactician, concocts a simple plan: "We'll do the same thing in the next life as we did in this one. We'll wake Aang up from the iceberg, go to Ba Sing Se, grab Toph, and the four of us will train until the Day of the Black Sun."

It is simplistic and likely to fall apart, but Katara doesn't say anything, comforted by the thought of a _we_ in her next life. She gets up and hunts for the scroll Yugoda had previously referenced, which Katara had thrown to the corner while arguing with Chief Arnook. She unfurls it, facing them. The text is riddled with characters found mainly in the Northern Water Tribe, but being from their southern counterpart, she can make out some of them.

"It looks like..." Katara squints, "time stands still in this world, until I return. _If_ I return."

"Man," Sokka says, "that's some crazy stuff."

Katara nods, and continues. "To get allocated to the world that you want, you have to convince La..."

"How are you going to reach La?" Toph asks, digging her pinkie finger in her ear.

"I don't know, I guess Yugoda's potion would get me there. I usually need a Spirit Guide, but... I don't think I'm likely to find one before then."

Katara quickly scans the rest of the scroll. She can make out some phrases that clearly comprise a recipe: stardust, spirit water, herb-lilies are the ingredients that she understands. Her eyes drop further down to the image on the scroll, of a goddess cloaked in white, reaching down to touch the ocean while the stars twinkle around her. She wonders what it's like up there for Yue; do the stars keep her company? Does she look down at them and regret her decision? Did she _have_ to do this?

She shakes herself out of her reverie.

"What will you do?" she asks them, lying back down next to Toph and pillowing her head on her crooked arms.

"We'll stay guard and defend Twinkletoes' body in case you come back," Toph replies boldly, filled with a bravado ill-fitting for someone who really can't see. Toph would do anything to take care of them, Katara knows, despite the grief she routinely gives them.

"You understand," Katara ventures hesitantly, "that if I don't come back, then all of you stop existing?"

Sokka turns to smile at her. "We'll exist in your other life. I'm sure you'll find a way to annoy us in that one, as well."

Katara turns to smile sadly at her family as they all sandwich closer to each other, for potentially the last time in this life. _Indeed._

* * *

They awake, suddenly, and Katara instinctively feels for the water still cocooning Aang. It's still in tact, and Katara lets herself breathe.

Toph is sitting upright, having kicked both siblings awake, squinting sightlessly while her toes dig into the ground beneath her. "Someone's coming," she says, quietly.

The wind is knocked out of Katara's lungs. "What?"

"Who?" Sokka asks urgently.

Toph scowls, frustrated. "I don't know! It's a miracle that I could even feel their vibrations through all this snow!"

"Toph - " he starts, but is interrupted by the flap to the healing hut being thrown open.

It's Yugoda. "Fire Nation," she says, looking over her shoulder anxiously. "Have you made up your mind?"

Katara has no time to hesitate. "Yes. I'll do it."

Yugoda beckons her outside, and Katara turns to look at her family.

"You'll be okay?" she asks.

"We'll take care of Twinkletoes, now _go!_ "

Katara turns to her brother, who's pulled out his boomerang. He nods at her, and smiles. "I'll see you in the next life, Katara. Go."

As she turns to leave, she sees the world's last hope cradled in the sheath of water, and her resolve hardens. She swallows against the lump in her throat, and follows Yugoda outside.

* * *

She hears shouting, and the Northern Water Tribe's ceremonial gong being chimed to signal wartime.

Yugoda has grasped hold of her sleeve, and is pulling her towards a ceremonial spot she knows only all too well. Yue shines above her as they rush towards the Spirit Oasis.

Cusp of war, or no, Katara can't help but to admire the warmth of the Spirit Oasis thawing the chill of her fingers. Yugoda kneels beside the pond and prepares the potion for Katara to consume. Her instructions are hurried.

"Drink it all in one go. No hesitation; La doesn't like that. Then jump into the Spirit Oasis. You'll be taken care of from there." Yugoda shoves final ingredients into the slightly smoking pot. "Do not turn back. No matter what, swimming in the Spirit Oasis."

Suddenly, Yugoda abandons the potion and takes hold of her wrists. "May Tui and La watch over you, bring you to the Shangri La you ask for, and return you to peace."

As Yugoda turns back to the concoction, Katara hears a crash from behind them.

She gets up in an instance, pulling a stream of water from her pouch, and turns to face -

He arcs through the air, foot outstretched, and Katara wraps a string of water around his ankle, flinging him to the side and away from Tui and La. He lands on his hands and flips over, reminiscent of the pink acrobat, and fire flares up in his hands. Katara is immediately on the offensive, sending ice discs to his throat as she raises a barrier of ice to protect Yugoda. Zuko shifts into a stance that has fire covering his forearms as he races towards her. Katara freezes the ground under him, and he is quick to shift to propelling himself from the ground using fire. Katara ducks underneath him, freezing his ankles to the ground again as she makes to freeze his whole body in ice.

"Where is he?" Zuko demands, melting his way through her restraints.

Katara, furious, ignores him and draws him further away from Yugoda, away from Tui and La.

"Where is he?" he repeats, flinging fire whips her way. "Tell me, I can make it easier on you."

"Like _hell_ you would!" She retaliates with a huge arc of water, sending steam fizzling thickly between them.

She cannot see clearly, but training with Toph has its disadvantages. As a fist swings through the air at her, she catches it with her own icy fist, digging shrapnels of ice into his skin. Hissing, Zuko pulls his hand back. "Azula is here, tell me where he is, I can go easier on him, just tell me." He punctuates each phrase with an arc of fire, forcing her further backwards. Steam rises around them.

She makes a staircase of ice, runs up each step, and Zuko breathes fire to melt each step just as she makes it and hops on to it. Finally, she is too slow to stop the onslaught, and tumbles to the ground. She rolls to the side, narrowly missing flames, and kicks up a wave that knocks him to his knees.

"Why would I ever trust you again?" she demands.

Zuko's face shifts into frustration. "Tell me, Azula's on her way, you don't need to make it harder than it is! Before she - "

"Having fun without me, brother?"

Azula stands on the other side of the pond, smirking, hip jutted outward and a fist resting neatly on it.

 _Yugoda_ , Katara thinks. She rides a wave over to the Healer, who is bent over the pot muttering incantations at it.

Azula is there before she can take a breath, soon joined by her brother.

 _Not again_ , she thinks, exasperated.

"I don't think so," Azula says, tittering. The grass around her and Yugoda goes up in flames. "My dear, paranoid, brother thinks that the Avatar is _still alive_. Tell me the truth and we'll let the old lady go."

Katara looks over at Zuko, who swallows and shifts into a fighting stance.

She turns back to Azula. "He's not alive... he's not here."

Azula's smile vanishes. "Liar."

The siblings together are ruthless, but Azula herself is cruel and cold-blooded. She attacks Katara as the world around them turns to flames. With Zuko nearing her, Katara knows this may be the end.

 _"Katara!"_ she hears, and without thinking, she runs through the fire, feet blistering with blinding pain, and flings herself at the pot that Yugoda is frantically gesturing to. Hastily, she tips it into her mouth and gulps all in one go.

Yugoda is on her feet, fighting with the moves of a healer: gentle, and not fast enough to match the siblings. She is losing.

"Go!" Yugoda shouts.

Katara doesn't think twice; she flings herself at the Spirit Oasis and barely misses a pair of hands grasping for her ankle.

Everything goes black.

* * *

Katara awakens suddenly to the feeling of drowning. She sees a dim light high up and kicks towards it, only to find the weight of the water dragging her back down. She waves a hand in front of her face sluggishly to bend herself an air pocket, but nothing happens. Panicking, she squints back up, and kicks hard. The weight pulls her back down periodically, but she fights against it as she slowly loses consciousness. Vigorously, she stretches her arms up and arcs them to her sides, helping her propel herself upwards. As stars dance in her vision, she finally breaks the surface and gulps down air.

She spots a little cove in the distance and makes her way towards it, finally seeking purchase with her fingers on the banks of the shore, and dragging herself on to the beach. Panting, she lays face-up, staring at the blank nighttime above her. There is no moon, no stars, nothing - just blackness. _Where am I?_ she thinks.

She flips herself on to her stomach and pushes herself up. She staggers on to her feet, wincing at the sensation of freshly burnt feet, and looks at the cove around her. It's lush, green, and illuminated by twinkling lights. Gingerly, she limps over and reaches out to touch one of the lights on a particularly low-hanging tree.

"Katara?"

Katara spins around and is momentarily blinded by the luminescence radiating from a silhouette. She blinks to adjust, and then squints at the features becoming more visible.

"Yue?"

Yue breaks into a smile and reaches to hug Katara.

"Katara! I'm so happy to see you! What are you doing here?"

"I'm not sure," Katara admits, "but I think I'm supposed to talk to La."

"La? I can probably help you with what you need."

"Aang is in danger in our world," Katara says, unable to vocalise the extent to which his life was at risk. "Yugoda has made me a potion to send me into another life, and on the scroll with the instructions, it says that I have to talk to La to get there first..." Katara trails off at the sight of Yue's pensive face.

"I see." Yue's face falls. "I'm sorry, Katara, but he doesn't spend much time in this world if he can avoid it. Ever since Tui died, he's gone to find her in another world. Most of the time, it's just me," Yue tells her, touching her hand. Katara hears the loneliness behind the sentiment, and squeezes her hand back.

"Will he come back soon?"

"I don't know, he never tells me anything really."

Katara frowns thoughtfully at the water. Where was he? Was she just supposed to wait?

Suddenly, she remembers being unable to bend when she was drowning earlier, and shifts through a basic waterbending stance experimentally. Nothing.

Turning to Yue, who was watching her anxiously, she asks: "What's going on?"

"Katara, you're in the Spirit World. There's no bending here."

"Oh." _Good. Great,_ she thinks sarcastically. What a flop this would be, having to wait here for all eternity for La to return, while Aang's life is in her hands. Another thought occurs to her.

"Yue, aren't you the moon? Why are you here? Where are all the stars?"

Yue smiles at her. "Ages ago, La had built this enclave for Tui and her stars to enjoy, so that she may be closer to him. I come here sometimes, to spend time with my friends, the stars." She gestures to the twinkling lights around the trees.

"Come on, guys, she's okay!" Yue calls out into the distance.

A couple of brave lights venture forwards tentatively and wink at Katara by her elbows. The lights around the trees shine brighter as Katara watches in wonder.

Yue giggles. "I think they like you," she whispers conspiratorially as more stars surround the two of them. "In fact, they might be able to help..."

Yue stretches her palms out and a couple of lights fly into them. She murmurs something indecipherable and smiles.

"Watch," Yue tells Katara.

One by one, the remaining stars pluck themselves off the trees and surround the two girls. Katara has to lift her hand to her eyes to shield herself from the blinding lights, and hears a sudden burst. Yue nudges Katara urgently, who opens her eyes only to stare at someone ethereal, handsome, and somehow familiar.

"La."

He smiles, finally. "Katara. About time."

* * *

He stands at the shore, hands held together behind his back, the water lapping eagerly at his ankles. His hair is long and flowing and he wears a light blue robe that blends seamlessly into the waves behind him.

"Welcome to the Spirit World," he tells her, smiling gently.

Her mouth hangs open for a second. "I thought... you were a fish."

Next to her, Yue snorts in amusement. La is more forgiving when he says, "that is the corporeal form I take in your world. This is my real form." He holds up a forearm and she watches as his whole arm seems to drip with water. She understands, suddenly.

"You're _made_ of water?" she asks, incredulously.

"I _am_ water," he corrects. "I am the mist on a cold morning, I am the moisture in all living things. I am the ocean. In fact," he approaches her steadily, the ocean promptly following him, "I am the first wave you've ever bent, and every waterbending motion since."

His familiarity makes sense now.

"Oh," she concludes dumbly.

"Oh," he agrees. "I have been summoned here to help you on your journey. You have swallowed one of my stars, and I am here to listen to your request. What do you want from me?"

"I was told that I could go to another world, because - "

"You misunderstand me. What world are you looking for?"

"I want a world in which there's no war, and Aang is alive, and my family is together, and everyone is happy."

He frowns down at her. "That's a lot of requests."

Katara remembers the scroll. She has to convince La, otherwise this is all futile. She breathes deeply, and says, "Aang is in trouble. I think he's going to die. I want a chance to redo my mistakes. I just want to try my mistakes again, but with a bit more wisdom this time."

He peers down at her, the watery pupils of his eyes making it difficult for her to meet his vision. She stands taller, tilting her chin up.

"You are a Daughter of the Ocean. I know your intentions. I will grant you passage this time."

Katara releases the breath she's been holding. "Thank - "

"I wouldn't thank me yet. Be careful what you wish for," he tells her. "Are you sure of this? I can return you back to your world."

Katara looks at Yue, who nods encouragingly at her.

"Yes, I'm sure," she finally says.

As La holds out a dripping hand for her to hold, Yue interrupts her.

"Wait, Katara!" Yue races up to her and looks at her earnestly.

"I might be alive in the next world. If you meet me, please..." she falters. "Please tell Sokka..."

"I will," Katara says. Then, she grabs for the outstretched hand, takes one last look at Yue, and dives into the ocean whose mouth is open to catch her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA.


	3. The Jolt Forward

**Chapter 3: The Jolt Forward**

* * *

_"Katara! Get up - hurry!"_

Katara awakes with a start. It's dark, and for a lingering second, she stares up at the black ceiling. Then, she gropes frantically for a lamp. She closes her fist around furs, scrambles to her feet, trips, and lands face-first on the floor.

"Ow," she complains, rubbing her nose. She reaches up to her chest to rub at the sore spot there, and immediately jerks her hand away, blushing.

Her breast bindings are tight around her chest, constricting the obvious growth in... that area.

_What the hell?_

As her eyes adjust to the darkness in her room, she spots a sole, rickety lantern. She treads carefully in the dark, her nose still throbbing, and carefully lights it. A warm glow illuminates the room, bringing into relief a small, cramped room.

She doesn't need to see it for more than a second to know where she is; she could navigate this room in her sleep. She recognises the talismans her brother and father had brought from their hunting travels back for her, strung neatly above the cot. The furs piled on top of it are her grandmother's, and she follows their trail to a corner packed with whale bone picks, deer thread, and raw, frayed pieces of fur. The carvings along her wall are undoubtedly portraits of her ancestors. Her eye is drawn to the space under the cot, where a lone scroll peeks out. She tugs at it and it pops free from the confines of her cot. She unfurls it and sees drawings and instructions pertaining to what seems to be rudimentary bending instructions, hastily drawn up. She's never seen that before.

In fact, the more she looks, the more she notices pieces of the room that are new. More carvings dot the walls around her, portraits of what seems like ancient waterbending lore, and a jar stands tucked behind a pile of clothes. She picks it up gingerly and sniffs it. She coughs and replaces the lid hastily, eyes watering.

She looks around in wondrous trepidation. This is her room, her childhood bedroom, but someone has obviously been living here. She's definitely travelled to a different world, but where the hell is she?

She notices the jagged mirror in the corner of her hut, and as she draws closer to it, a stranger stares back at her apprehensively. It's her, but she's different. Older. She's slightly taller, her thighs and breasts have filled out, her cheekbones are higher, lips fuller. Most noticeably, she has a tattoo of waves travelling up from the side of her upper left thigh, twirling itself around the top of her left hipbone. A similar tattoo, she notices, seems to bracket her right breast, although the majority of it gets swallowed up by her breast bindings.

She knows this tattoo ritual - it's the second part of a coming-of-age ceremony. She had experienced the first one in her previous life, when she started her period, where she was covered in whale oil, bathed in blessed water, and the women of the tribe gathered to pray to the gods for a fruitful bounty of children for her. The second part is for when women turn eighteen, and involves tattooing on the woman the deity they wished would take care of her. Her tattoo is La's symbol.

This simultaneously calms and startles her: she's at least eighteen years old. The room must belong to the older version of herself.

Her trembling hands reach for her necklace, only to touch smooth skin where the pendant usually lies. Panicked, her eyes snap to her bare neck, and her stomach threatens to drop out from under her.

_It's gone._

"Katara! If you don't get out here _right now_ we're leaving without you!"

Although the voice is deeper than she's used to, she recognises the voice, the impatient way it cracks at her name. She hastily pulls on a parka and trousers, stuffs her feet in a pair of boots she finds by the entrance to the hut, and hastens her way outside.

"Sokka?"

He turns to her. He, too, is taller - he towers over her now - and there is unfamiliar stubble clinging to his chin, but his eyes are the same, as is the scowl on his face.

"We've been waiting for _fifteen minutes!_ Dad and I were going to leave without you!"

Her eyes follow the length of his arm, past the tip of his pointing finger, to the gaggle of busy men strapping chatting animatedly with each other and sharpening their spears. Among the group is her father, with streaks of white around his hair and lines pulling at the corner of his eyes.

"Dad?"

Hakoda turns to her, wolfish grin and all, and motions her over.

"Sokka was about to pitch a fit; good thing you came when you did!" he tells her, ruffling her hair and leaning down to give her a one-armed hug, the other hand carefully holding his spear from her daughter.

"What's going on?" she asks, confused beyond words. The last time she had seen his father, he had departed quickly from them and Aang to continue fighting against the Fire Nation. Now, he stands here, smiling with a familiarity she cannot recognise on his face, as though he had never left. The world around her starts to feel too small.

Hakoda frowns good-naturedly down at her. "Don't tell me you forgot, it's Tui's Hunt. Sokka's not shut up about it for the past month; you'd think we'd never took him hunting before."

"Yeah!" Sokka stomps over, gesticulating wildly at his spear. "I've been sharpening this for _days_ , and we're supposed to leave before dawn _breaks_ , and you're so _annoying_ , the women are supposed to be there to see the men _off_ , and you're _late_ _!"_

Katara breaks into a smile at the familiarity of having her brother around. A lifetime ago, Sokka had promised that she'd find a way to annoy him in the next one, and here she is, already on track. This little comfort is already overwhelming to her.

Sokka falters, pausing his tirade to watch his sister's eyes fill up with tears. "I was only joking, Katara," he tells her, patting her arm awkwardly, "there's still a bit of time before dawn breaks, and you're here now anyway, so it doesn't matter."

Katara nods, sniffling and taken aback at the sudden whiplash of events, and leans into Sokka. He drops his spear to the snowy ground and wraps his arms around her. She notes that despite is bulkier stature, he still smells the same, like leather and crisp snow. She briefly considers telling him and everyone in her tribe, that she's a time traveller, but for all intents and purposes this world is still strange to her. She needs to get her bearings first. Plus, they might subject her to the exorcist ritual if they think she's lost her mind.

"Please don't cry," he murmurs into her ear. "I didn't mean to make you cry. Man, I'm going to be in so much trouble if Mom or Dad sees this..."

Katara pulls away abruptly. "Mom?" she asks, her voice wavering.

Sokka nods over to the group of women. In the middle of it, easily charming the attention of the other women around her, stands her mother. The top section of long, flowing hair is pinned at the top of her head in an elaborate bun. She wears a similar light blue parka with white trousers that Katara wore in her previous life. She is wearing Katara's - her mother's - necklace. She turns to look at them, and the clear blue of her eyes meet Katara's, the exact shade of which Katara had resigned herself to never seeing again.

She smiles gently and beckons her daughter over, and Katara is frozen in place, as if seeing a ghost.

"Katara," she calls. The sound of her mother's voice, which had read her to sleep, sang to her, scolded her, claimed to be a waterbender, and begged to be killed instead of her daughter, is familiar in all the ways that hurts the most.

Katara bursts into tears.

* * *

The women had bid the men goodbye, and Kya had ushered a crying Katara into her Gran Gran's tent.

Kanna brews them a speciality tea picked from herbs that grow only for a few weeks every year, and Kya sits at the small table with Katara, stroking her daughter's hair and murmuring soothingly to her.

"They'll be okay, Katara," her mother promises her. "They've faced much worse hunts before - don't you remember the leopard-caribou attack? Sokka's first hunt?"

Katara doesn't; she hasn't experienced it. She nods anyway, and her mother smiles fondly at the memory.

"I've never seen Sokka that excited, except for when he plays with that boomerang of his. Anyway, don't cry about it, darling."

Kanna turns to her granddaughter. "Is it Tui's time for you? This tea will help!"

"No," Katara protests, "it's not that time, yet!" Katara knows nothing about this life, but the sudden nostalgia of it gives her the confidence to bet that her period starts exactly when there's a full moon, which has yet to come, judging by the waxing smile it gave her as she stumbled out of her tent this morning.

"Then what is it, Katara?" her mother asks. Katara, so floored by the mere existence of her mother, is too overwhelmed to do much but shrug in taciturn silence.

Kanna exchanges glances at her daughter. "Is it the soldiers?"

"What soldiers?"

"What sol - " Kanna rolls her eyes. "Honestly, dear, with they way you're acting, are you sure it's not Tui's time? The Fire Nation soldiers!"

 _Oh shit._ Katara sits in stunned silence, letting the implications of her grandmother's words sink into her. One, there are _Fire Nation_ soldiers in her village, and likely not here for peacetime reasons. Two, Katara has to reign in her lack of knowledge, lest someone gets suspicious. She supposes that not knowing that there are Fire Nation soldiers in her village is already a misstep.

"Oh, yeah," Katara agrees. "Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. What if they hurt Dad and Sokka?"

Kya turns to stare thoughtfully at the table in front of her. "They won't," her mother assures her. "They know the deal. We give them a harbour to park their ships and enough oil to keep them going, and they don't attack us."

Kanna humphs from where she stands, facing the pot. "That's not what they did with Nanouk's kid, did they?"

 _What did they do to Nanouk's kid?_ she wants to ask, but keeps her mouth shut.

Kanna continues anyway. "One hand-wave that looked like waterbending and it was ten lashes for him!"

 _Oh._ Another piece of the puzzle clicks into place. That must by why Kya's not dead; nobody from the Fire Nation knows that Katara's a waterbender, so nobody came for her.

"Anyway," Kya says, turning to face her daughter and cupping her cheek in her hand, "nobody is coming for us. We're safe; it's all okay."

Though Katara is a novice in this world, she has enough experience to carry from the previous one to doubt that it is.

* * *

The men arrive in the evening, carrying on their shoulders the carcasses from Tui's Hunt.

It's an ancient ritual her Gran Gran had explained to her in another life when Katara was very young. She recalls that it includes a yearly blessing from Tui, and two weeks before the full moon every year, the men hunt from dawn until dusk daily, pausing their hunting for a month after. It was important to stock up during this time, after which the Yearly Reset of animals begins.

Sokka, eager as she remembers him, boasts loudly about his kills, waving a deer he has grabbed by the hind legs at his sister. Katara grimaces as she watches the blood stain the snow beneath them.

The tribe gathers together for their first feast of Tui's Hunt, sitting in a circle and facing the open fire. To her right sits Sokka, and to her left sits her mother. Her father stands close to the fire, skinning the animals to begin cooking them.

Sokka has already launched into an animated tribute to his own hunting skills. "You won't believe it, Mom, Bato spent _ages_ trying to corner this polar bear dog, but even he and Dad together couldn't do it, but I did! I threw this boomerang, and it got distracted, and I caught it, it was so cool!"

Kya is smiling fondly at her son. "Where is it now?"

"Um..." Sokka rubs the back of his neck. "it was too big, and I proved my point anyway, so I let it go."

Bato leans across to them. "You mean you were too scared to kill it."

Sokka's mouth hangs open for a second. "Well! Dad was, too!"

"Way to sell me out, son," Hakoda mutters.

Katara sits there, slightly stunned. Her whole family is together, and they're all happy and alive. She wonders, numbly, whether this is just an elaborate dream, and whether she'll snap out of it suddenly. She turns to look at her mother, unable to stop staring at her face. Her mother looks so beautiful and serene, and Katara has to refrain herself from reaching out to touch her face, just to see if she's real.

Her train of thought is interrupted by the announcement of dinner. This is familiar in another, equally overwhelming, way: after having left the Southern Water Tribe in her last life with Aang, she had been hard-pressed to find any food that reminds her of home. Now, the salty, slippery texture of food settles keenly in her belly, and Katara feels full in a way that she's not felt in years.

She looks around at her tribe, which is bigger than she has ever seen, even in her youth. The avoidance of genocide has afforded the Southern Water Tribe the luxury of remaining strong and populated. There are children she doesn't recognise, and faces of men she's barely seen in her youth, all sitting here and laughing together.

There are a couple of girls her age, a fact that Katara seems to notice at the same time as Sokka. He gets up from next to her and saunters over to the knot of girls, running his hand through his hair in what he must have thought was a suave way. The girls giggle and whisper to themselves, and Sokka's smile grows wider.

Katara blinks. Is this what would have happened if there was no war? They would have stayed here, met someone suitable within the tribe, got married and have children? She thinks briefly of Yue and Suki, two names Katara is confident _this_ Sokka has never heard.

Katara grows steadily happier and sleepier as the evening progresses. She listens to the roar of her father's laughter as he tells a story that entertains the whole village. She watches her mother clap and sing along to an ancient folk song, and her brother drift off into snores next to her.

The peace is short-lived, though; interrupted by a man around her father's age. He cuts through the jovial noise easily:

"What are you doing here?"

All heads turn towards the subject of the question, and Katara's dinner is nearly upturned at the sight. It's a Fire Nation man - she could recognise the uniform from a mile away.

The man from her tribe seems to be gearing up for a fight, striding purposefully towards the man, when her father cuts in with a hand to his shoulder.

"Panuk, sit down."

The man does, reluctantly, and Hakoda himself apprehends the Fire Nation soldier.

"May we help you?"

Katara watches with rapt attention as the man pulls up his helmet - and breathes a sigh of relief. She doesn't recognise him.

"Just watching the festivities," the man replies casually. "Making sure it doesn't get too out of hand."

"You know the deal," Hakoda says softly to him. Not that it matters, everyone is paying attention and can hear him over the pin drop silence - save, of course, Sokka's snores. "We let you dock here, and you don't interrupt us. Leave."

Bato and a couple of men stand up, crossing their arms.

The soldier appraises them, smirks, tips his helmet back down, and turns around to leave.

The air is tense for a hot second, but at the sight of the retreating soldier, the festive mood sinks back in.

Between the squeals of little children and the drunk singing of her elders, Katara tries valiantly to not think about whose face she feared she would see under the helmet.

* * *

One-by-one, people break off to go to bed, bidding each other good night, and walking away with arms wound around each other.

Kya has tried to wake up her son, to no avail. Growing increasingly annoyed at her brother's snoring (she's so glad he's here, but _come on)_ , Katara pokes him awake.

He grumbles at her, rubbing his ribs, and gets up to go home. Hakoda comes up to Kya, taking her into his arms and whispering something to her. She coos back a reply, too soft for Katara to hear.

She greedily takes in the sight of her parents interacting, so happy, so in love, and her heart feels so full that it could burst.

They turn to her as they begin to leave. "Coming?" her father asks.

"In a bit," Katara replies.

Too much has happened today, and she knows that try as she may, she won't be able to sleep. She watches as her parents head towards their hut and fade into the blackness of the night. She gets up, brushing the backs of her thighs, and walks towards the ocean.

The moon smiles down at her, and Katara knows that it's not Yue who's up there right now.

A lot of this is too good to be true. Her family is together, alive, and well. She seems to have fallen into the world where things are perfect - selfishly, she wants to remain in this stasis for as long as she can.

She remembers the promise she made her brother and Toph in her previous life. They find Aang and train together.

She's not blind; she knows that there are dangers lurking in this world. The Fire Nation soldier's presence told her as much. There are probably the usual enemies out there - Azula, Ozai... Zuko. The dam of thoughts finally break. She has remained stoic in her thoughts about Zuko, but she realises that he's the reason why she's even here now. If he hadn't betrayed them... and she had genuinely _believed_... how many times did she have to learn the same lesson...

But this life isn't her previous one. This life remains unblemished. No murders, no genocides, and no boys with scars. Is it too much to ask, to want to enjoy it while she can?

She sits at the shore, and the water pulls at her feet, urging her away from home and towards the destiny she knows is waiting for her. She thinks of her other life, of Aang's future hanging in the balance, of a rough scar and chapped lips under her palm, that there's no longer something they have in common, and resolves that she won't make the same mistakes this time around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA.
> 
> A/N: Reviews are always appreciated, let me know what you think!


	4. Ebb and Flow

**Chapter 4:** **Ebb and Flow**

* * *

Katara slips into an easy rhythm at home. The ebb and flow of life in the Southern Water Tribe becomes as familiar to her as the tides themselves. She spends her mornings in her Gran Gran's hut with her whole family, chatting and laughing about a life seemingly untainted by war. Afternoons are spent exploring the village, which includes a lively marketplace, a school, a healing centre, and a larger smattering of huts than she's used to seeing. Evenings are her favourite: now, one week into Tui's Hunt, Katara has busied herself with cooking and cleaning for her tribe. Albeit a debasing job for women, something about the softness in her mother's eyes when Katara hands her food that she's made herself fills her with something she's been starved of for so long.

Today is no different. Katara gets up languidly, stretching. She rolls out of bed and begins to run a whalebone comb through her hair. She's had this in her previous life as well, gifted to her by her Gran Gran. She stares at her reflection in the mirror, still unused to seeing the woman she's become look back evenly at her. Of noteworthy importance are her tattoo, of course, and her decided skinniness. This Katara clearly has not undergone the rigorous training that she had in her previous life. Katara tacks on questions about her waterbending and the tattoo to her laundry list of questions to ask for the day.

To avoid rousing suspicion, Katara makes a habit of creating a couple of questions to enquire about daily, in what she hopes is a subtle manner. Most of the questions she's had so far stem from a hungry need to hear as much as she can about the domestic life her family has created. She has learned that her father is still Chief of the Tribe, which includes duties such as leading hunting expeditions such that nobody in the tribe goes hungry, overseeing public affairs within her community, and upholding the peace between their tribe and the Fire Nation soldiers who dock here.

Sokka has followed in his father's footsteps, training to become a future Chief. He is skilled now at tracking, hunting, and killing, skills that require the intellect Katara has always known him to have, as well as the brute strength that a younger Sokka never really managed to master. He is as goofy as ever, though, unburdened by the fright of war.

Her mother, as Chief's Wife, splits her time between spending time with the women of the village and reporting their grievances back to her husband, and visiting the school to oversee the education of young children. Katara had always liked to remember her mother as intelligent, and Kya does not disappoint. Her graceful navigation of Southern Water Tribe politics, paired with a keen understanding for what she wants the children of her tribe to understand, makes her a formidable woman and a perfect counterpart to the village's Chief.

Her Gran Gran has slipped into a retirement of sorts. In this life, where she doesn't have to raise two traumatised children by herself, she can luxuriate in her spare time. Kanna has always been talented at crafting, as evidenced by the mounting pile of furs and decorative artefacts adorning Katara's room. Kanna also spends her time with the village elders, ruminating deeply about Southern Water Tribe lore, the highlights of which are recounted to eager children during the night's feast.

Katara makes her way to her Gran Gran's hut, waving at a couple of fishermen passing her by. She slips into the hut and she sees her Gran Gran and parents already sat at the table, chatting easily about the impending change in weather.

"You had better make sure to bring home more leopard-seals, Hakoda," her Gran Gran is telling him. "The village needs more furs to get us through the winter."

Hakoda agrees, catching Katara's eye and grinning.

"Morning, Katara, slept well?"

Katara eases herself into the chair next to her father, nodding. "Yeah, I did. Although..." Katara dives straight into the first of her pre-planned lies, "my tattoo started itching in the night."

She figures that this is a safe way to glean as much information as she can about the tattoo; specifically, about when she got it. She'd like to have a good handle on her age, at the very least. It's a disconcerting feeling, not knowing the basic facts about herself.

Her mother frowns. "Strange. It not supposed to irritate you at all."

"Yeah, I know, because I got it..."

"... with charcoal ink, the best kind," Kanna finishes for her.

"Yeah, and I got it..."

"Quite a while ago," Hakoda replies.

_Not helpful!_

"Have you been scratching it open?" Kanna asks her, surveying her in the way that only her Gran Gran could.

"No, I haven't." Time to execute the second part of her pre-planned speech. "Why don't I just heal it properly?"

"With what? We've already used the blessed oils."

"Waterbending."

Hakoda turns to frown at her heavily. "You know that's not going to happen."

"Why not?" Katara protests. "I bet I could just heal the last bit of it, and it wouldn't hurt any more. Besides, don't think I don't notice how we deal with injuries; I think having a waterbender would be really useful here!"

Hakoda rubs his temples, sighing. "Why do you insist on bringing this up so often?"

Oh, so she's brought this up before in this life? Good. She's used to butting heads with her father, so she ploughs on anyway: "Because I think the Southern Water Tribe needs at least _one_ waterbender."

Her brief dalliances with the school and the community sessions had revealed that there aren't any waterbenders. Or, if there are, they're trying to keep it under wraps.

"Do you need me to remind you want happened to the others?"

 _Yes_ _,_ she wants to say, but instead just tilts her chin upwards. Her father takes it as a rebellious affirmative, and his expression hardens.

"Let's see." He begins to count off the children. "Hardik came home from a hunt to find that his child had been taken away by brute force ten years ago and that his wife had been murdered by the Fire Nation. Alia's been missing for the last seven after she bent a snowball at the school playground. Nawal's daughter was snatched from in front of her, after turning water into ice. Saket was fifteen when the Fire Nation caught him mimicking a bending pose - they took him in and tortured him for a whole day, and he's not bent or spoken since. Amka - "

"Okay, okay! I get it!" Most of these names are unfamiliar to her; they didn't exist in her previous life, probably because their parents had been killed by then. Still, she's seen them around and doesn't want to hear the gruesome stories about their fate anymore.

"Do you..." Katara hesitates at her words, and then ploughs through, "know what happened to them?"

Her father is looking at her levelly; stern and disapproving. "For the last time, Katara, we don't know. Saket is the only person who's still left in this tribe who's witnessed the torture and he's been mute since. Nobody else has returned; you know this."

Katara surveys the differences between her father now and the one in her previous life. The recollections of her father previously are few and far between; snatched moments before he set off to war again. The man sitting before her now looks tired in a different way than she ever remembered him, a quiet sort of resignation filling the space between them.

"Didn't you do anything to stop them?" she asks him.

His fingers lace together on the table in front of him, and he leans heavily on his forearms. "Like what, exactly? Fight the Fire Nation? Put not just my family, but the rest of the tribe at risk? Bring the wrath of the Phoenix King on our heads?"

"The... Phoenix King?"

"Ozai," he elaborates, still staring at his interlaced fingers.

Just like that, another piece of the puzzle falls into place. The nameless enemy remained in a shadow for the past week, but Katara now knows that history is repeating itself. Ozai is out there, which likely means that his children are, as well.

Heart thudding in her chest, Katara presses for more information. "What the hell is a Phoenix King anyway? What about the Fire Lord?"

Maybe in this world, Fire Lords don't exist. It's a big gamble, but it pays off.

"We don't know, Katara. His daughter, Amula - "

"Azula," Katara corrects quietly, heart sinking.

" - is the Fire Lord, and all we know is that the Phoenix King is out to conquer anything that moves. We have to keep our heads down."

"And..." Katara's mind tries to push a name through her lips, but no sound comes out. She tries, once, twice, thrice. "Zuko?"

"Who?" Kanna interjects.

"N-never mind, I was thinking about something else."

Does Zuko not exist in this world? Did her decision to go to this world kill Zuko? Katara knew that there would be consequences to her actions, but the idea of killing him sits wrongly with her, despite the traitor that he is.

She tunes back in to Hakoda's diatribe about _protecting the family_ and _keeping our heads down_. She stares at him. Why did he not stand up and fight? In another life, he would have gone to war for them.

"We have to do something," she finds herself saying. "At the very least, we have to learn how to protect ourselves. I need to waterbend; we can't just keep going like this! What if the Fire Nation decides to attack us, one day? What will we do then? We can't just sit down and take it; we can't - "

"Enough."

Katara's head whips towards her mother, who is looking at her with disappointment and shaking her head.

"Enough. There'll be no waterbending, and that's that."

In her other life, after her mother had died and the initial shock had died out, Katara had greedily catalogued every memory she ever had of her. She would be manic in her memorisation of the shape of her mother's lips when she smiled, of the exact timbre of her voice when she sang her and Sokka to sleep, of every thing that used to make her mother laugh. In all her memories, she cannot recall her mother being angry at her.

Maybe Katara has built an idealised version of her mother, so sweet and caring, always, and never upset at her. The disappointment in her mother's eyes hurts like a physical thing, and it makes her question what type of relationship she has with her mother now. Katara thinks she might give her left limb to stop making her mother look at her like that, but they haven't seen what she's seen. They've never seen black snow and a genocide. They've never seen Kya begging for Katara's life and lying for her. They've never seen Katara cowering in a corner, so they've never had cause to be disappointed in her.

Pretend as she may, she knows that this life isn't safe, and she will not be weak if the Fire Nation comes for them. Not this time.

Katara opens her mouth to retort when Sokka comes in, oblivious to the tension in the room. He makes to drop his parka on the floor, and under his grandmother's withering glare, instead makes a show of hanging it up on one of the hooks by the entrance.

"Sorry I'm late, everyone!" He sits between Katara and Kya. "What did I miss?" he asks, beaming around at all of them.

Katara slams her palms on the table as she gets up, knocking her chair down on the way out.

Outside, her hands are shaking. Her whole family just sits there, acting like things are fine, but they have _no idea_ the extent to which horrors exist just beyond these icy tundras. And to ask her to not waterbend! That was like asking her to not breathe. She was doing this for their own protection; didn't they see that?

"Katara!" Sokka runs up to her, pulling on his parka simultaneously. "What just happened? You threw a major hissy fit in there and now everyone's upset!"

"They don't want me to bend!" Katara bursts out to her brother, her best friend, her confidante.

Sokka's face morphs into confusion. "Of course they don't; we just want to keep you safe."

 _"We?_ _"_ He certainly wasn't like this in her previous life. He had a brash habit of diving headfirst into danger, consequences be dammed.

"Katara..." he beseeches, lifting his hands up towards her in placation.

Katara's expression is steely when she pulls off her gloves. "Don't want me waterbending? I'll _show you_ waterbending!"

Before Sokka can react, Katara drops into a waterbending stance, intending on soaking her brother with a tidal wave. She goes through the motions, breathing, shifting her weight, pushing both palms forward, and -

Nothing.

Not a single drop.

Unnerved, Katara tries again, to no avail. Sokka is watching her with mounting confusion.

"What are you supposed to be doing? You look like you're weird dancing."

"Shut _up_ , Sokka!"

Katara tries, again and again. A move that should have brought forth a tsunami now shifts the snow under her feet slightly.

Sokka tries to school his face into a neutral expression, but the beginnings of a grin begin to crack at the edges of his mouth.

Katara tries to form a water whip, and a few droplets of water wriggle on the snow beneath her. Here she stands, a master waterbender, trained by Master Pakku herself, pride and joy of the Southern Water Tribe, unable to form a water whip.

At Katara's antics, a peel of laughter breaks loose from Sokka, and soon his shoulders are shaking.

"Where did you learn that stuff anyway? You look like you've gone crazy!"

Katara shoves him with all her might, and he falls to the ground, still laughing.

"Come back, Katara," he calls after her as she stomps away, wounded and furious. "Maybe you could teach me how to fancy bend, too!"

* * *

The afternoon finds her back in the market, meandering listlessly through the stalls set up along an icy road. The incident with her waterbending has unsettled her deeply and she hasn't dared to try since. She has given her family a wide berth, unable to decide whether she wants to restart her row with them or let it lie.

Taking refuge in the marketplace is easy; there are many things to distract her. Multiple stalls selling traditional Southern Water Tribe food dot the road, as do street vendors selling different types of fur, oils, and dried food. Katara, so used to her wartime frugality, does little other than look at them keenly. Today, she has decided to suss out whether her old honorific of 'last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe' is still in tact, a title she would gladly shed herself of if she could find someone else to help her solve this waterbending mystery.

It's been like this recently, that every time she thinks she's answered one question, another one pops up. She figures that Yugoda had sent her here because, as a waterbender, she was most likely to be able to convince La to guide her passage. But why is she not able to waterbend? Is it the lingering effects from the Spirit World, where her bending was rendered useless? Is it her weaker body? Is waterbending just _different_ here?

Katara knows she has to snoop covertly, a skill she's always been lacklustre at. _I have a couple of leads,_ she muses, as she picks up and examines frozen shark-eel meat. The waterbending scroll tucked under her bed might contain some clues, and maybe meeting the mute boy, Saket, would give her some inspiration.

She resolves to meet the boy first, curious to see whether he could divulge any information, mute or not. She puts the dead shark-eel back on the stand and smiles politely at the vendor, only to notice that he's staring at a point past her shoulder, eyes narrowed and lips pressed thin. His hands are gripping on to the wooden beams supporting the stall, knuckles white.

Katara follows his line of vision and immediately spots the problem: eight Fire Nation soldiers, in their full armour, marching through the market. She reaches instinctively for her water pouch, only to find that it weren't there. _What good would it do if it were there, anyway?_ she muses to herself.

The Fire Nation soldiers walk through the market, clearly singular in their purpose, barraging their way through an already parting crowd. As they pass her, she catches the eye of a soldier, feeling fleeting relief at the sight of his brown eyes. He turns his face to look at her properly, and she stares back levelly, unimpressed with his intimidation.

They pass by her nonetheless and come to a standstill next to a young vendor, who couldn't have been more than fifteen years old.

One of the Fire Nation soldiers pulls of his helmet. The leader, clearly, if his armour is anything to go by. "Get your father," he tells her curtly. "Tell him he needs to supply us with more oil."

The girl cowers under his gaze. "H-he's out hunting," she says, looking up at him with wide eyes.

The soldier grabs the girl by the collar of her parka, lifting her up by a couple of inches so that her toes are scrambling to touch the snow beneath her. "Then you'll find him and get him here _immediately._ _"_

"Hey!" Katara marches over to the knot of soldiers and pries the man's fingers off the girl's parka. The girl drops to the floor, and with a fearful look at Katara, turns to run away.

Woefully unprepared, she stands here unsure of what she needs to say next. The soldiers are now facing her, forming a semicircle around her and blocking her view of the village.

Travelling with Aang for so long has some advantages that she's carried into this life, including her usual diatribe of "leave them alone, they're defenceless, stop hurting them", which she launches into promptly, hoping to buy herself some time. No such luck.

One of the soldiers snarls at her and shifts into a stance that triggers her fight-or-flight response, and unable to bend, she throws her hands up to her face.

"Katara!"

The soldiers turn to the source of the sound and break their formation, allowing her mother to march through and snatch Katara's wrist.

"What the hell are you doing?" her mother hisses to her. Just past her mother, Katara sees the young girl who she saved, hiding slightly behind a couple of other villagers.

Kya turns to face the soldiers, face slipping smoothly into a pacifying smile. "We're so sorry; my daughter can be a handful. We've of course got the oil you need for your ships, and we'll gladly transport it over to you."

The leader surveys Katara, then turns to face Kya. "See to it that you do." He replaces his helmet and beckons the rest of his army. Together, they walk past the already-waning crowd.

Once they are out of sight, Kya turns to face her daughter, face full of reprimand.

"I know, I know," Katara interrupts. "I was an idiot. But they were going to hurt that girl!"

"No, they weren't," Kya snaps, gesturing with her chin towards members of the hunting group that had stayed behind to take care of the village.

Feeling even more foolish, Katara glowers at the floor.

"You could have hurt yourself, Katara, and you could have hurt the village! You don't know how these soldiers react to anything! What did I tell you - what do I _always_ tell you? Keep your head down!"

Katara is thoroughly scolded and is ready to go back to her hut and nurse her bruised ego. It's embarrassing enough that she can't bend, but the disgraceful alacrity with which she threw herself in the throes of danger, consequences be dammed, is clearly a failure in understanding that she doesn't have Team Avatar to back her up any more. She turns to leave, but her mother is not done with her.

"The oil we gave them was the oil that we've collected so far from Tui's Hunt. The oil that was supposed to keep our village going during the Reset Month. If you had just _waited_ , we could have found Yuka's father who could have procured the lower quality oil for them!"

Tears sting at her vision. "I'm sorry," she tells her mother, shamefaced.

Her mother's expression remains stern for a second before dissolving into tired empathy.

"You've always been a fighter, Katara, and I've always admired you for that. But we have to think about our tribe now, our family. Keep your head down; no bending, okay?"

Katara's eyes fill with tears. The moment she saw her mother running into the fray to rescue her daughter, Katara knew that she was helpless to protect her from the soldiers. The only thing separating Kya's fate now and that of her previous life is, as far as Katara can see, dumb luck. She had told herself that if the Fire Nation ever came for her mother, Katara would not be weak. The shadows of enemies from her past seem to creep closer to her little utopia as the days pass, and Katara needs to be prepared. She's already ruined a lot in this life. She has let her mother down, she cannot waterbend, and she has not started to fulfil her promise from another life to Sokka and Toph. What's the harm in another lie?

To this end, she looks her mother in the eye and nods.

* * *

Afternoon blends into evening seamlessly, the sun kissing the ice as it tucks itself away for the night. Fractals of light reflect off ice sheets, bathing her tribe's ceremonial feast in pink and orange light.

Katara busies herself with preparing the meal for her tribe, and everyone is either ignorant of the blunder that led to a week's worth of hunting oil being surrendered, or else are kind enough not to mention it.

She recognises a pair of footsteps innately as it comes rushing to her.

"Katara!"

She turns to face Sokka, whose face is flushed. He clutches a boomerang in his right hand.

"Are we okay?" he asks her, surveying her face anxiously.

She smiles at him. "Of course, Sokka." She does not want to fight with her family any more.

His face breaks into a smile. "Good. Anyway, look at what Gran Gran made me!" He waves the boomerang in her face and she swats it away when it gets too close to her nose. He cradles it, looking down at it with unhealthy admiration.

It is admittedly beautiful. It is lightweight and thin, made from the highest quality whalebone, tapering off into professionally-smoothed edges around the rim. The carvings on the boomerang are symmetrical and intricate, reminiscent of water ripples.

"Wow," she breathes, and Sokka grins at her, jutting his chest out proudly.

"It's because I'm a _man_ , and we need to protect you women."

Katara misses Suki sorely for a second, wishing deeply to see Sokka in his Kyoshi Warrior costume.

"Sure thing, Sokka," she grumbles, turning back to the food and shooing him away.

The food is served soon enough, and Katara takes her fill of today's selection of meat: elk-deer and shark-eel. She sits cross-legged next to a couple of the girls from her tribe and listens to their inane chatter about the cute boys from the village. Katara is slightly disgusted to hear Sokka's name thrown into the mix, and enthusiastically at that, and has actively tuned out when they call her name.

"Katara?"

"Huh?"

"I said, what do you think?"

"About what?"

"Or rather," one of the girls says conspiratorially to her, leaning over the other girls slightly, " _who_ do you think?"

Katara catches wind of the conversation quickly and blushes. "Nobody."

"Nobody? There's _nobody_ you'd want to help... warm your furs?"

"Gross! No!"

Katara has scant time to think about her own problems, let alone which boy she'd like to...

Her train of though is mercifully interrupted by the sound of a steady drumbeat.

She spots her Gran Gran staggering to her feet with the help of Hakoda at her elbow. Kanna smiles at her son-in-law and pats his arm. She turns to face the villagers who are watching her with rapt attention. It's the time of night again where an elder tells a story about ancient folklore.

"Today," Gran Gran begins, her voice carrying through the cold of the night, "we talk about the first waterbender." She makes eye contact with Katara for a second. "Lest we forget our roots."

The children have gathered at her feet, looking up at her eagerly.

"The first waterbender was a little boy called - "

"Varuna!" one of the children supplies helpfully.

"Yes, Imiq," Gran Gran smiles down at the child. "Varuna was a handsome and kind prince who oversaw the two Water Tribes. He would dutifully split his time between the two tribes, hiking across the world for a week, and spending the alternate months in each tribe. He was universally loved by all, but Tui himself feared that Varuna was driven solely by the promise of prosperity and deification.

One day, Varuna met a beautiful woman, Karunai, whose kindness compelled her to stop and speak to individuals as they faced their problems, refusing to leave until they felt unburdened by them. They fell in love instantly and got married, and he took her along with him on each journey to the two tribes so that they may spread kindness and prosperity together.

On one such journey, they came across a villager who was dying of thirst and starvation. Karunai, so affected by his plight, gave him some of their water. The stranger kept asking for more, and Karunai, unwilling to say no, gave him all of her water. Unbeknownst to them, this villager was Tui in disguise, hoping to test the limits of Varuna's kindness. The loving couple kept walking and soon fell into their own thirst, and it soon became clear that Karunai was dying. Varuna, loathe to see his wife suffer, spent the next forty-eight hours meditating, gathering enough chi to centre himself properly.

Finally, as a reward for his patience, Tui appeared in front of Varuna.

'I will grant you one boon,' Tui told Varuna. 'Anything you wish shall be yours.'

'Please, let me get some water to my dying wife,' Varuna begged.

Tui, taken aback that Varuna had not wished for something to his benefit, granted the boon immediately. 'I will follow you throughout your journeys,' Tui promised. 'Any time you need water, do the dance of the waves and it shall come to you.'

Tui kept that promise, and Varuna walked back to his wife, saving her from her bleak fate. And so they continued journeying between the poles, keeping themselves from dying of thirst, as Varuna and Tui became good friends. Under the watchful eye of the couple, the tribes flourished. And so the first waterbender was born.

Legend has it that all waterbenders must now learn to communicate with Tui in order to waterbend properly. Disrespect the ancient form and you will bring Tui's wrath on our heads, vengeful god that he is."

There is a smattering of applause, and a small voice peeps up: "what are we going to do if Tui comes to attack us?"

Katara, having seen Tui firsthand, privately thinks that it's not a far-fetched possibility. The man seemed fickle at best.

"Don't worry," Sokka replies. "If he comes knocking on _our_ door, he'll just get a little taste of _this!"_ He launches the boomerang in the direction of the ocean, and it does not return.

Face going red, he mutters, "I'll just uh... go get that back."

Katara smiles at him as he passes by her, then goes to sit by her grandmother.

"Gran Gran, do you really believe that Varuna was the first waterbender?"

"Of course, Katara. These stories have been handed down through the generations, from Karunai herself."

"So do you think that all the stuff about waterbending is true?"

"Why?" Gran Gran asks sharply. "You're not planning on waterbending, are you?"

"No," Katara replies quickly.

Her grandmother humphs. "Well. If you _were_ considering waterbending - which you aren't - I would start by following the instructions. Build up your chi first. Nothing will come from it otherwise."

Is this what's been blocking her? Her chi just wasn't in the right place after time travel?

"I don't understand. How do you build up your chi? I mean, what if I already have chi, could I lose it? What does it mean to anger Tui?"

Her Gran Gran looks at her, suddenly intense. "Katara," she says urgently, "If you want to bend, then you have to start by - "

_"Help! Someone! Katara!"_

With the taste of an unfinished conversation in her mouth, Katara gets up and runs towards the source of the sound. As she reaches the icy shores of the tribe, she sees Sokka emerging from the water, supporting a body. The man has got his arm thrown around Sokka's shoulders and his head droops down, his hair covering his face entirely. His feet drag on the sand as Sokka pulls him out, and Katara runs to him, feeling entirely hopeless without her healing abilities.

"Quick, help me get him inside, I think he's freezing to death," Sokka says to her.

Nodding, Katara moves to put the man's other arm around her shoulders, and freezes at the sight of a nasty scar covering the man's face.

_Zuko._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA.
> 
> A/N: Finally! Off to the races. Kind of a longer chapter, hope it doesn't feel too rushed. Leave a review, please!


	5. The Awakening

**Chapter 5: The Awakening**

* * *

Zuko sleeps for three solid days and nights, in Katara's tent no less.

Her brother and father had originally pitched a fit about having a man sleep in Katara's room, but they had acquiesced once they realised that there was no space in Hakoda and Kya's hut, nor in Kanna's hut. Sokka quickly reneged on his offer to have Zuko sleep in his room when he realised it meant staying up overnight to watch him.

No matter, it's the way Katara wants it. She knows enough about this Avatar-obsessed, power-hungry, backstabbing man to not trust him around her family. Better to keep a close watch on him in case he tries anything.

Katara lies on furs covering the floor for the three nights, monitoring his breathing, a sick mimicry of how she took care of Aang in Yugoda's hut what felt like only days ago. She has taken to guarding him like crazed polar-wolf, opting to eat meals in her room and surface from her hut only to bring more supplies back.

Her swathes of time alone with him affords her the opportunity to scrutinise him. There is, of course, no mistaking the scar that covers the left side of his face - she can practically feel it under her palm - but there are peculiar features about him nonetheless. He's simultaneously more muscular and leaner, and the bones of his cheekbones and ribs are prominent. _Hard labour and little to eat,_ Katara deduces. He, too, is older: she can guess based on his frame that he probably towers over her now, and his features seem sharper - _although that may be malnutrition,_ Katara concedes.

His hair is different. She can date the Zuko from her previous life based on his ponytail or lack thereof; although, the latter Zuko has only been seen once, in the confines of the catacombs. He has a full head of hair now, long enough to cover his eyes. An errant lock flutters up and shimmies back down with each passing breath of his. She watches its dance and ponders to herself about the implications of these differences.

Has this Zuko whittled away at his life chasing after Aang? Does this hairstyle mean that a version of the catacombs incident has come and gone? The events that have a ring of familiarity to her based on her previous life appear sporadically, but she can guess that neither she, nor any of her family, has ever left the Southern Water Tribe in this world. She and Zuko have likely never met, let alone fought with each other in Ba Sing Se.

Her eyes snap down to him as she hears teeth clatter. She puts a hand to his forehead, only to find it burning. Sighing, she grabs a wet towel and drapes it over his forehead, then tips some water down his throat which he unconsciously gulps down. Katara has been stripped clean of her title 'Master Waterbender', but she can still gauge a patient's health. His heart is beating weakly, all colour has drained from his face save the dark circles around his eyes, and he's running a high fever. No need to be practiced in waterbending to guess that he's suffering.

Her empathy for the clearly struggling man is blockaded by a betrayal that he may have no recollection of; though she recognises that it is churlish at best to hold him accountable for another Zuko's mistakes, the sting of betrayal is still fresh, as is her knowledge that he has the capability, if not the inclination, to chase her and her friends halfway across the world.

Still, she keeps him alive, because a human life is still a human life, son of the Fire Lord - _Phoenix King_ \- or no. Besides, Katara is chock full of questions and she needs Zuko to awaken so that she can interrogate him.

Her family stops by sometimes to visit her. Her mother and grandmother spend time fussing over the "poor boy", covering him in healing symbols from a charcoal and oil blend and praying to the gods for his speedy recovery. One day in to Zuko's arrival, Katara watches with bitter apprehension as her mother wraps his feet in healing seaweed-kelp.

"Where do you think he came from?" Kya mutters to her.

Katara can answer volumes on that question, but settles with shrugging.

"He's very far away from home," Kya continues, frowning down at Zuko pale complexion thoughtfully. "The Earth Kingdom, maybe?"

"Maybe," Katara allows, "or maybe he's dangerous. He could be from the Fire Nation."

"Unlikely," Kya counters. "Look at the poor boy's face; he's clearly a victim of the Fire Nation."

Katara bites her tongue against a retort, a noncommittal noise working itself loose. She watches her mother care for Zuko, something ugly and frightened rearing in her. There's no telling who Zuko would attack when - _if_ \- he wakes up, and Katara wants her mother to be far away from him in that eventuality. A lifetime is clearly not enough to repair the trust that Zuko so easily squandered in the catacombs.

Kya turns to face her fully, smiles at her, and comes over to cup her face.

"Ever since you were a young girl, you've always wanted to protect everyone. Even when rations were low and the Fire Nation kept taking from us, you always remained optimistic and forgiving. You've got a big heart, Katara, and it shows, the way you're taking care of him." Kya's hands drift down to hold Katara's. "I'm so proud of you."

Katara, simultaneously ashamed of and steadfast in her measure of Zuko, grips her mother's hands back, desperately wishing that what Kya had said was true.

* * *

 _"Why,"_ Sokka booms at her, " _would you_ ever _have a jar that high up?"_

On the second day after Zuko's arrival, Sokka had brought lunch for himself and Katara, insisting that she needed socialisation because she was acting "weird" and "scary".

Katara had been touched; after all, he had missed today's Hunt to spend time with her, and Sokka was always easy company to keep. Predictably, however, the warm feeling gave way rapidly to irritation. Now, Katara watches in annoyance as Sokka staggers around her room, clutching his head and bemoaning her organisational skills.

"Why do you even _need_ seal jerky?" Katara snaps. "We just ate half an hour ago!"

"Are you calling me fat?" Sokka demands.

Huffing, Katara sits back down on the furs by the floor, crossing her arms. Sokka joins her, pain soon forgotten at the prospect of unfettered access to the seal jerky in the jar. Together, they watch Zuko's steady breathing.

"Man," Sokka declares between mouthfuls of jerky, "I'm surprised he's still holding on. When I found him, I thought he was a goner. I mean," he gestures with the flabby piece of jerky towards Zuko, "he's lucky I even found him. He was clinging on to this piece of wood and he was clearly drowning, and the sea was _so cold._ I mean," he amends, puffing his chest out, "not for me. But for him, probably."

"What do you think he's doing so far away from his home? And _alone?_ " Katara wonders aloud, more to herself than anything. Katara's remembers Zuko being accompanied by Iroh before the catacombs, whom she remembers fondly as the man who stood up to his own family to protect Katara and Aang under Ba Sing Se.

"He's probably a refugee," Sokka replies, spewing jerky all over her rug. Grinning sheepishly at her, he grins, and continues, "There are quite a few refugees after Sozin's Comet."

"What?" Katara whispers, heart leaping in her throat.

"Sozin's comet! You know? That big huge scary fire-ball day where Ozai went around conquering the whole world and we had to hide in Gran Gran's hut for the whole day? Like just a few months after the Day of the Black Sun?"

"Right... when was that, again?"

Sokka shrugged. "Five years ago, now? Can you imagine the number of refugees? I'm surprised more of them haven't tried to come over here."

Katara's stopped listening to him. Two realisations hit her: that she's nineteen, and that Ozai managed to unfold his plan for world domination, likely with no interference. In her previous life, Team Avatar had agreed that Aang must defeat Ozai on the Day of the Black Sun, or else fight (likely to the death) on the day of Sozin's Comet. In this world, they've missed both milestones. They're too late.

She gives voice to the question that has been nagging her since her arrival in this world: "Where's the Avatar? Couldn't he have stopped this?"

Sokka looks at her from the corner of his eyes, frowning. "Katara, you know that nobody has seen or heard from the Avatar in the last - "

"One hundred and five years, yeah," Katara finishes quietly for her brother. Something akin to defeat spreads through her and her shoulders slump down. She had come to this world with the sole purpose of defeating the Fire Nation; now that nobody has heard from the Avatar, the task is infinitely more insurmountable. Even if Katara _did_ manage to remember which iceberg in the Southern Water Tribe he was located in, and break him free without her bending, what good would it do? Sozin's Comet has come and gone.

Sokka, sensing the shift in mood, pats her shoulder. "Don't worry, little sister, we're safe here."

 _Are we?_ Katara wonders. Katara knows little about the Fire Nation's plans for domination, but she doubts that it includes letting the Southern Water Tribe subsist peacefully. She now stands at a crossroads: she can either find Aang and try to follow Sokka and Toph's original plan, albeit modified, or she can stay here and live out the rest of her days with her family.

A sickening realisation spreads through her now: regardless of her choice, she's already failed her mission before it's even started.

* * *

The third day after Zuko's arrival stretches on with uninterrupted silence. The confines of Katara's room have driven her mad, and she spends her time scrutinising and lamenting every decision she's made. Why did she have to travel _forwards_ in time? Why couldn't she have gone backwards? Wasn't she clear with Tui about what she wanted? A chance to re-do her mistakes, but this time -

"With a little more maturity," Katara whispers to herself, realisation dawning on her. Is this Tui's sick way of fulfilling that promise? Pushing her into an older version of herself as a poor proxy for maturity?

She ponders at her strange situation: stuck in a strange, parallel world, where things were somehow better and worse, with the man who forced her to jump to this world laying wrapped up in her furs. The gods were definitely having fun with this.

She watches, sullen, as Zuko keeps struggling through his breaths. Sometimes, she catches him muttering to himself. She's always been described by Sokka in this life and her previous one as _nosey,_ and she certainly fits the bill when she hovers over Zuko to catch what he's saying.

Most of it is unintelligible, but she catches a few snippets about _Uncle_ , _Mom_ and _Azula always lies_. Katara knows enough about Zuko to guess who, if not what, he's dreaming about.

She's come to the conclusion that Zuko is likely to survive: his heart rate has settled and colour steadily returns to his face with each passing hour. She knows that it's just a waiting game now, and she starts to prepare for the inevitable.

Without her waterbending, she feels naked and unable to protect herself or anyone else, a predicament exacerbated by the fact that he admittedly is a formidable firebender. She would ask for someone else's help but she's unwilling to put anyone in harm's way - she has to do this by herself.

She walks over to Zuko and hooks her forearms under his armpits. She tugs sharply and lands on her tailbone while his body drapes itself over her floor. Biting her lip against a shout, she gets up and drags Zuko's body none too gently to a shelf props him up against it. He groans halfheartedly but stays asleep, a testament to the strength of Gran Gran's drowsy healing medicine. There are no furs surrounding him, so he's less likely to set her hut on fire. At least, if he does, he's hopefully far enough away from the door that the others will have time to protect themselves. She grabs sailing rope and ties his ankles together, as well as ties his wrists behind him. She fishes one of Sokka's old boomerangs from under a pile of furs and sits cross-legged across from him, and waits.

And waits.

Of course, he takes the most inopportune moment to wake up; after the feast has ended and the sun has set, after Katara slips off into a drowsy sleep, after she starts dreaming about Varuna and Tui. She awakens immediately when Zuko groans sluggishly, and her hand grips Sokka's boomerang tightly.

" _Wha -_ " he begins, eyes opening blearily to meet hers. She sucks in a harsh breath at the sight of gold. There's certainly no doubting who he is _now_.

His eyes snap to the boomerang raised above her head, and then he notices the ropes.

"What the - " he hisses, and begins to struggle.

"S-stay still!" Katara demands, raising the boomerang even higher, "or I'll make you!"

He's not listening to her, struggling restlessly against the bonds, but Katara is from the water and understands her way around shipping knots well. He reaches this realisation quickly, and spreads his feet as wide as he can with the rope around his ankles. He takes a deep breath - _firebending!_ Katara's mind supplies - and breathes steadily at the rope.

Nothing.

Panicked, he tries again, and a few feeble sparks flitter out of his mouth. His eyes meet her, and she notices with some small satisfaction that he's terrified.

"What have you done? You _witch!"_

"Calm down!" Katara shouts to no avail as she watches him struggle in earnest. "You'll wake everyone up!"

Surely enough, Sokka bursts through the door of her hut at the commotion, and his mouth forms a little 'o' at the sight of the incapacitated man panting and struggling on the floor.

"Uh..." is all he's capable of saying, even as the rest of their family joins in.

"Katara, is that _shipping rope?"_ Hakoda asks, horrified. He doesn't wait for her answer, but strides forwards and fishes a small knife from inside his parka.

"Dad, _no!"_ Katara flings herself in front of her mother as Hakoda cuts Zuko free of his bonds.

Zuko staggers to his feet, chest heaving, and glares at her. "What have you done to me?" he growls.

"Nothing, it's not my fault that you can't - "

"Katara," her mother cuts across her, deceptively calm. "I don't know what's gotten into you. Get the man some water. Now."

Katara stalks across the length of her room, pouring water from a jug into a glass. She grabs the glass and turns back to Zuko.

"Here," she snaps, shoving the glass at him with vigour, still clutching the boomerang with her other hand. He stares at the glass for a moment, and then snatches it from her.

"We're so sorry," Kya is stumbling over her apologies, shamefaced. "We didn't expect that Katara would - ever since the Fire Nation colonised us, she's been quite jumpy - I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it - I mean, I'm sure that you're a fine young man - what's your name?"

He glowers at the cot Kya has encouraged him to sit on, before acquiescing slowly. "Lee," he says as he lowers himself to sit on the cot, muscles still tensed. He takes a cautious sip of the water.

 _Liar!_ Katara glares steadily at him, still gripping the boomerang in her left hand.

"Where are you from, Lee?" Hakoda asks encouragingly. "Anyone out there looking for you?"

Katara hears him mutter _plenty_ under his breath before replying to the first question. "I'm from Ba Sing Se."

"I _knew_ it!" Sokka crows, and then assumes a sombre expression after catching Gran Gran's glare.

Zuko still has his gaze trained on her. "Who are you? Where am I?"

"You're in the Southern Water Tribe," Gran Gran answers as she flits around Katara's hut, pulling together ingredients to make what Katara recognises as a healing drink. "I'm Kanna, this is my daughter Kya. That's her husband, Hakoda, the chief - " Kanna gestures at him with a jar in her hand, "their son, Sokka, and their daughter, Katara."

"How did I get here?" Zuko demands.

"You tell us, man," Sokka responds, clapping him on the shoulder and ignoring his flinch, "I found you floating around in the water."

Zuko changes tracks. "How do I get out of here?"

Gran Gran approaches Katara's cot. "You can't, not in your state. You need to heal properly first. Drink this." She offers him the concoction she pulled together.

"I don't have time for this!" Zuko growls, wobbling to his feet. He makes a few steps that resemble an ostrich-horse, and promptly lands on the floor.

Sokka hides a snort behind his hand, and Kanna pulls him to his feet with surprising agility.

"You're staying here until you're well enough to travel," she snaps. "Hasn't anyone taught you to respect your elders?" She hands him the glass. "Drink. It's not poisoned, boy."

He does, glowering at them all and then tipping the drink back.

Gran Gran appraises him sternly, and then mutters, "Maybe my granddaughter was right to tie you up."

 _"Mom!"_ Kya bites out. She turns to Zuko. "We can put you up in one of our spare huts. We don't want the Fire Nation soldiers knowing that you're here. They don't take too kindly to refugees."

Zuko struggles with himself, and then: "Thank you."

As she and Hakoda bracket him and help him to his feet, he turns to look at Katara once more. "What have you done?" he asks her quietly.

"What do you mean, _Lee?"_

Zuko opens his mouth to reply, thinks better of it, and shakes his head. "Nothing."

As her parents help him out of her hut, Sokka in tow, she watches his retreating steps with trepidation. Like it or not, the safety of her home is getting increasingly enmeshed in the absurdity of this war.

* * *

The Tribal Feast is a hushed affair, at least to Katara. People dropped to hushed voices whenever she's in close proximity, and a couple of giggles float by her whenever she passes a knot of girls. She grabs her food and sits by Sokka, staring miserably at her smoked sea slugs.

"Do you think Mom's upset with me?" Katara finally asks.

"I don't know," Sokka replies, halfway through his portion of food already. "You've just been acting really strange, I think Mom's just worried. Ever since you learned that women aren't allowed to hunt and nobody's allowed to bend, it just seemed like home became too small for you."

This is not an experience she recollects, but she's not surprised. The Southern Water Tribe might be more progressive than its northern counterpart, but it doesn't mean that misogynistic ideas are relics of their cultural past.

"Well, what do you expect? I'm a waterbender." she replies. "I don't want to spend my life cooking and making babies."

"Okay, nobody said anything about _making babies_ ," Sokka corrects, grimacing, "and you're good at cooking! The feast's food tastes better when you prepare it..." he suggests, glancing at her and clearing his throat at her scowl. "You _know_ why we can't just waterbend. It's the price of maintaining peace."

"This isn't peace," Katara protests, "giving away all of our rations, not being able to bend, always being scared of the Fire Nation..."

"It's the cost of not ending up like the Air Nomads," Sokka replies quietly.

It stings to hear of the Air Nomads' extinction in this life, that Tui had not been kind enough to send her to a world where the monstrosity had been avoided. A dichotomy between her two lives cracks open in front of her: Katara remembers Sokka's expression when they had watched Aang discover that he was the last of his kind. In that life, it gave him the conviction to act. In this, it gave him the conviction to hide.

"We learned about the genocide at school, Katara, do you think that they couldn't make the same example out of us if they wanted to? Tomorrow, the Fire Nation children could be reading about the Southern Water Tribe's genocide. We have to be careful."

Katara turns to face him desperately. "How can you be careful without being prepared? We _have_ to be able to defend ourselves, Sokka, and what's more is that you know I'm right."

She's on to him. She can tell by the way he refuses to meet her eye and his jaw clenches.

Tentatively, she reaches out and grasps his sleeve. "You need to learn how to defend yourself properly. I need to learn how to waterbend."

Sokka looks at her finally, about to reply, before his eyes focus on a spot above her head. He makes a hasty excuse and leaves.

Kanna sits next to her, now.

"I'm very disappointed in you, Katara," she murmurs to her, brows furrowed. "What came over you, treating that man like a criminal?"

Katara swallows. "You don't know that he isn't dangerous."

"You don't know that he _is_."

Katara throws caution to the wind. "He might be from the Fire Nation. We don't know; he might be here to hurt us, he might even be a _firebender_ \- "

"Whatever his past," Kanna interrupts, "he is now a refugee. Don't you realise that something must have happened for him to be abandoned near our tribe? If he's keeping secrets, let him. Everyone deserves the privacy of their pasts and a chance to restart their lives. Wouldn't you like the opportunity for a fresh start?"

Katara looks up at the winking stars and sighs. "Yes."

Technically, she knows that Zuko hasn't done anything to her in this life. He didn't even _know_ who she was; that much was clear when he first looked at her and she didn't see the recognition in his eyes. She doesn't want to make an enemy out of someone if she can avoid it, not least because she has come to understand that despite the veneer of familiarity, she's still a foreigner here. She can't afford any enemies, and she can't afford to make mistakes.

If he leaves her and her family alone, she supposes that she can maintain civility towards him.

Gran Gran has produced a bowl of food from somewhere and hands it to her. "If you're going to go apologise to him, then you should at least give him some food."

An _apology_ was not what was on her mind, but Katara nods anyway and gets up. She passes by her parents, and they look at her with rebuke. Kya notices the bowl of food in her daughter's hands and the direction she's heading, and her expression lifts slightly.

Turns out that she has a laundry list of people to apologise to.

* * *

Zuko has been put up in one of the spare tents by hers and Sokka's huts, which has apparently remained unoccupied since the death of an elder a few months ago. It takes some guesswork to find the right door - after all, this hut didn't exist in her other life - but she can guess the occupant by the fresh footprints that have sunk too easily into the snow. _Must be a firebender,_ she muses.

She raps neatly with her knuckles against the door and receives no response.

"I've got food," she calls, and at the continued silence, she opens the door carefully.

She steps inside and it's clear that this hut has remained unoccupied for a while. The light filtering through the open door illuminates built-up dirt and grime. Grimacing, she tiptoes her way towards the outline of a table and puts the bowl of food down, intent on sneaking out before he wakes up.

She turns to face the cot only to find it empty. Odd.

"Hello?"

Nothing.

She turns back to leave, but the door is now closed.

Her breath hitches, and her head whips sideways at the whisper of sound coming from the corner of the hut.

"Z-Zuko?"

Her fingers stray to her hip, reaching for the water pouch that she's forgotten isn't there. Her eyes adjust slowly to the darkness, heart hammering, and she catches a movement out of the corner of her eye -

Zuko has pounced on her, pinning her to the ground with one hand grabbing both wrists and the other forearm pressed across her throat. The ensuing chaos has knocked the food down from the table and the bowl shatters.

"How do you know who I am?" he demands. "What have you done to my bending? _Who are you?"_

Katara chokes against the pressure on her wrist and futilely tries to inhale to scream for help, but the weight of his forearm across her throat is lifted and quickly replaced by his hand clapped over her mouth.

She bites the hand, tasting sweat and a hint of metallic and he snatches his hand back, hissing.

She raises her knees up so that her feet are braced on the floor and bucks him off, head butting him. They both retreat and Katara grabs a shard from the bowl.

"Stop," she warns, "or I'll scream and everyone will come down here."

He glowers at her from where he's crouched on the other side of the room.

"How do you know who I am?" he demands again.

"I - you're famous," Katara quickly lies. "You're the son of the Phoenix King."

Something shifts in Zuko's expression fleetingly. He snorts, acquiescing. "I didn't know you peasants got any news in this corner of the world."

 _"Excuse me?_ I can't believe I came over here to _forgive_ you!"

"Forgive me?" He jerks a thumb towards himself disbelievingly. "You're the crazy lady that attacked me!"

"You attacked me too!"

"You _tied me up!"_

Katara blushes, remembering pirates briefly. "You lied about who you were!"

"You took away my bending!"

"I did _not!_ _"_ Katara falters, eyes dropping to the floor. "I lost my bending, too."

He peers at her curiously, straightening back up into a standing position. "You bend?"

She scowls at him. "Not anymore!"

"I thought - " He shakes his head. "What happened?"

It's none of his business, but the spirit of an apology, she tells him, "I just... woke up one day, I guess, and I noticed that I couldn't bend. It's probably the stupid Fire Nation's fault, anyway."

He stares at her evenly. "Probably," he allows.

Katara raises an eyebrow. What happened to the patriotic ponytail freak that chased Team Avatar around the world shouting about honour?

"You broke my Gran Gran's bowl," Katara mutters, drawing the conversation away from the incongruity of the two Zukos.

"I'll apologise to your Gran Gran." He crosses his arms over his chest, looking conflicted. "You need my help if you want to figure out what's going on with your bending."

Katara opens her mouth to protest, but he ploughs forward, "It's clear you've not been able to figure it out yourself, and you're awful at sneaking." He looks pointedly at the casualty that is the smoked sea slugs laying feebly on the floor. "And..." he hesitates, neck going red, "I need your help too. If I ever want to get off this block of ice."

 _That's_ more like the Zuko she knows. Back on familiar territory, Katara ponders his offer. She does need help, admittedly, and there's only one person who hasn't balked at the idea of her bending so far. Chagrined as she is that it's _Zuko_ , she has no choice but to accept. Plus, getting him away from the island is probably the best option for everyone.

"Fine," she agrees.

"Oh. Uh. Great." He scratches the back of his neck. "You're not... going to tell anyone who I am, are you?"

"Probably won't help with _sneaking around_. I won't tell them, for now."

His relaxes, offering her a tentative smile.

Face twisting, Katara stalks up to him. "But let me tell you something, _right now._ You make one step backward, one slip up, give me _one reason_ to think you might hurt my family, and you won't have to worry about getting off this island any more. Because I'll make sure that your destiny ends, right then and there. _Permanently."_

She turns her back to him and leaves the hut, walks back to the feast and sits down by her brother, the promise of another life unexplored unfurling uneasily within her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA.
> 
> A/N: Anyone recognise Katara's speech?
> 
> I'm not too happy with the pacing of this chapter but I think there are some things we needed to establish and work through before the next parts. Please leave a review!


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